Arcade Attack – Pinball Character vs. Space Invaders

It starts off as a documentary about pinball machines and the rise of the video game. Especially focused on the game ‘Defender’. A rockabilly type of guy explains his love for Pinball machines and another fan walks around a room that must be the wet dream of every pinball-lover out there. Then it cuts to a guy playing defender and explaining how it works. They also show you a couple of classic arcade machines. So you would think that videogames would mark the end of an era for the pinball machines and that the documentary would go in this direction. Wrong. They keep switching between pinball machines and arcade machines until the artwork on both machines come alive (through the wonders of animation…although i not sure if is rotoscope or not..) and start battling each other through the city of London. So you have an Egyptian Horus (straight of a pinball machine) fighting a space invader. And another warrior-girl throws pinballs to destroy a space invader. And then something amazing happens to the rockabilly pinball-lover. I can’t explain it and i won’t. You just have to see it to believe it. But it was so much more. It turned into a unbelievable trip. Go watch it… NOW.

A look at the start-to-finish process of building a pinball machine. Also includes some
early history on pinball.
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2) Stern Factory Tour [2:34 minutes]

An inside look at the Stern factory in a quick clip created by Erin Stern.
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3) Tilt – The Battle to Save Pinball [1 hour]

IN 1998, COIN-OPERATED GAMES were in dire straits. Arcades were extinct, having long ceded
their popularity to home video games. Yet pinball remained an experience you couldn’t get at
home. The pinball designers at Williams of Chicago, Illinois—the world’s largest manufacturer
of pinball—realized this; they knew that with a little rethinking, pinball could once again
succeed.
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4) Bucci’s Vintage Pinvids #1 [19m:24s]

Back in 1994, when I was about 16 years old, my friend Trevor and I grabbed the VHS camcorder
and drove around town looking for pinball machines. We had planned to make this a long series
of tapes and tried to do it like a TV show.

Gene Jarvis was visiting the Pinball of Hall of Fame at the exact same time as the author.
Gene was a pinball and video game engineer at Williams in the 1980s, creating some of the best
games of that era, including Defender and Robotron. He was listen to watch Gene and Tim reminisce
about the history and people they both know.

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7) Ball Saved [3 parts]

Ball Saved”, a pinball documentary by Ben Olson. “Ball Saved” features a rare glimpse
behind the scenes at Stern Pinball, an interview with Roger Sharpe, world-class player,
historian and pinball transcendentalist and brings you into the world of competitive pinball
at the Pinbrawl.

A British documentary from 1982 in which video games battle
pinball machines. Contains some great footage of older Williams machines.

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10) Little Miss Gamer [9m:52s]

Little Miss Gamer discovers that there are certain things that can’t be replicated on a home
console – like pinball! Join LMG as she interviews Levi Nayman, a pinball wiz with a showroom
filled with old and new pinball machines. Classic cabinets reviewed include: Dimension,
Night Rider, and Eight Ball.